Amazon Prime Video announces live-action ‘Blade Runner’ limited TV series

“Blade Runner” is getting its own limited series on Prime Video. Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch that the streaming service announced today it greenlit “Blade Runner 2099,” the first time the sci-fi franchise is getting a live-action TV show. Last year, Adult Swim made an anime series called “Blade Runner: Black Lotus.”

The Hollywood Reporter initially leaked the news in February. Amazon made the news official today.

Nothing else has been shared about the series, including the plot or when it will premiere. However, based on the title, “Blade Runner 2099” will likely take place 50 years after the sequel “Blade Runner 2049.”

Directed by Ridley Scott, who is known for the 1979 horror “Alien,” the sci-fi film “Blade Runner” premiered in 1982 and later became a cult classic. The cyberpunk film stars Harrison Ford as a Los Angeles cop in a dystopian future. Ford’s character, Rick Deckard, is a blade runner that hunts down bioengineered humanoids called “replicants.”

Thirty-five years later, the franchise was revived and the sequel “Blade Runner 2049” hit theaters in 2017, starring Ryan Gosling as a replicant blade runner.

‘Blade Runner 2049’ doesn’t quite match the original, but that’s okay

Alcon Entertainment, the production company that secured the rights to produce “Blade Runner” prequels and sequels in 2011, said in a statement, “We are delighted to continue our working relationship with our friends at Amazon. And we are beyond excited to continue to extend the ‘Blade Runner’ canon into a new realm… we hope that we can live up to that standard and delight audiences with the next generation of ‘Blade Runner,’” co-CEOs and co-founders of Alcon Entertainment, Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, said.

The news of a greenlit “Blade Runner” series comes on the heels of the streamer releasing a “The Lord of the Rings” series earlier this month. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” has done extremely well for the streaming service, banking off the beloved fantasy adventure film trilogy. Amazon claimed that 25 million viewers worldwide streamed “The Rings of Power” in the first 24 hours of its debut, noting this was the biggest premiere in Prime Video’s history.

It’s likely that Amazon Prime Video and other streaming services will continue to revive popular franchises in an attempt to gain more subscribers.

Disney+ is seen as the king of franchises, releasing series after series based on the “Star Wars” universe. Paramount+ has a bunch of “Star Trek” series on its platform.